Expression of stressful experiences through writing: effects of a self-regulation manipulation for pessimists and optimists.
This study assessed the effectiveness of a writing task designed to foster self-regulatory coping with stressful experiences to reduce medical clinic visits and to promote adjustment. Students entering college (N = 122) who were classified as optimists or pessimists by using a dispositional optimism measure participated in a self-regulation task (expressing thoughts and feelings about entering college and then formulating coping plans), a disclosure task (expressing thoughts and feelings only), or a control task (writing about trivial topics) for 3 weekly writing sessions. Among optimists, both the self-regulation task and the disclosure task reduced illness-related clinic visits during the following month; among pessimists, only the self-regulation task reduced clinic visits. In general, the self-regulation task beneficially affected mood state and college adjustment whereas the disclosure task increased grade point averages.
Cameron
L D
LD
Department of Psychology, Saint Joseph's University, USA. lcameron@psych.auckland.ac.nz
Nicholls
G
G
D000124:Achievement; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000339:Affect; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010551:Personality; D011340:Problem Solving; D011582:Psychological Theory; D012649:Self Concept; D013315:Stress, Psychological / Q000534:rehabilitation*; D013333:Student Health Services / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D013334:Students / Q000523:psychology; D014342:Truth Disclosure; D014956:Writing